MapR, Teradata Ink Deal, Bad Timing for Hortonworks?

This morning Hadoop distro provider MapR and Teradata, the big data analytics and marketing applications company, announced that they have expanded their partnership. What it comes down to, in the simplest possible terms, is that the companies will work together to integrate and co-develop their joint products and to create a unified go to market strategy,

Teradata will also be able to resell MapR software, professional services, and provide customer support.

In other words, Teradata will be the face of MapR to enterprises who use, or want to use, both technologies.

Teradata Hits the Hadoop Trifecta

The relationship is a nice win for Teradata because MapR was the only remaining independent Apache Hadoop distro provider it had yet to ensnare. It already has similar arrangements in place with Cloudera (announced last month) and Hortonworks (2012).

Teradata branded itself as “The One Stop Shop for Big Data,” in the press deck we saw; and to its customers, it may be exactly that. There is no need for their eyes to wander and to think about data lakes and enterprise data hubs, to worry about what data to put where, or to even ask questions like “how the hell do you do this big data thing?”

Instead all that Teradata customers will have to do to get it on with big data is to talk to the account rep they already know and like. When they have a Hadoop-related problem, it will be the trusted Teradata support rep that they’ve been working with for years who will answer the call. And it will be Teradata that will help them to deliver on their big data dreams.

What a huge win this is for Teradata. Only a few short years ago it looked like these big-data munching upstarts might marginalize the data warehouse giant , or even try to displace it, today Teradata is practically carrying them in through its customers doors and putting them on its pricelists.

Needless to say, the Hadoop vendors are benefitting from this as well.

And while there certainly might be Teradata clients who decide to do big data, quit Teradata, and proceed on their own; when you take into account how much Teradata customers love Teradata, there may not be that many, at least now.

Why This Deal?

Why didn’t Teradata partner with just one Hadoop vendor given that all of its distros are based on open source Apache Hadoop? After all, working with three vendors certainly consumes more time and resources than working with one.

Because the market offers three solid distros and there are nuances between them, and we want our customers to have choice, sums up the statement we got from Teradata via e-mail.

And the sentiment isn’t theirs alone. In a recent conversation, Gartner analyst Nick Heudecker told us that he expects technology vendors to be polygamous in their relationships with Hadoop distro providers. It’s to their benefit.

Trouble for Hortonworks?

Evidence suggests that Heudecker’s right on the money. Teradata partnered most closely with Hortonworks until recently; now it’s sharing love and its analytic market leadership with all three providers.

Similarly, earlier this week, HP announced Vertica for SQL on Hadoop, which allows users to access and explore data residing in any of the three primary Hadoop distros — Hortonworks, MapR, Cloudera — or any combination thereof. This despite HP’s obvious interest in Hortonworks in which it recently invested 50 million.

In October, Cloudera co-founder Mike Olson shared the stage with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announcing that Cloudera would become (and now is) Azure certified. It’s doubtful that Hortonworks ever shared that kind of public spotlight with a Microsoft CEO, despite that fact that HDP, Hortonworks Hadoop distro, is the “Intel inside” Microsoft’s Hadoop products.

While changes in relationships like these might not raise eyebrows in other markets, at least part of Hortonworks strategy has centered on being the Hadoop distro of choice with larger, more established software vendors.

Evidence suggests that the stronghold that Hortonworks may have had is now diminishing.

As Cloudera CEO Tom Reilly told me last week, If Hortonworks ever had an advantage, in terms of the relationships with other providers, that playing field has now been leveled.

MapR’s relationship with Teradata is just another piece of evidence pointing to that fact that cozy relationships in the Hadoop ecosystem are no longer much of a power play. And it comes just after Hortonworks filed for its IPO.

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